By Gillian Barnett, CEO, World Vision Ireland

On World Water Day, conversations about water often feel abstract, framed around long term scarcity, climate targets, or distant futures. In Somalia, water insecurity is not abstract. It is immediate, relentless, and increasingly devastating.

After consecutive failed rainy seasons and prolonged dry spells, Somalia is facing one of its most severe droughts in recent years. An estimated 3.4 million people are currently experiencing acute food insecurity, while 1.85 million children under five are projected to suffer acute malnutrition between 2025 and 2026. Behind these figures lies a daily struggle for survival, driven first and foremost by the absence of safe, reliable water.

When Water Fails, Everything Else Follows

In Somalia, climate change is experienced through water, or the lack of it. Failed rains mean crops do not grow, livestock die, food prices rise, and families are forced to move in search of water and pasture. In regions like Nugaal in Puntland, assessments show that up to 85% of households have been affected by drought, with families losing as much as 60% of their livestock, often their only source of income.

Water scarcity does not exist in isolation. It accelerates hunger, deepens poverty, and pushes already vulnerable communities into crisis. As groundwater sources dry up and water points become unreliable, families face impossible choices: pay for increasingly expensive water, or spend that money on food; send children to school, or ask them to help fetch water; stay put, or join the growing number of displaced families.

This year’s theme, “Where water flows, equality grows,” captures the profound truth. But it also reminds us of its opposite: where water fails, inequality deepens.

The Hidden Burden on Women and Girls

As in many parts of the world, the burden of water scarcity in Somalia falls disproportionately on women and girls. When water sources dry up, it is women who walk further and wait longer to collect it, often in harsh conditions and with heightened protection risks. Every additional hour spent searching for water is an hour lost from education, income generating activities, or rest.

In displacement settings, these risks intensify. Overcrowded settlements, limited sanitation, and long distances to water points expose women and girls to harassment and violence. Water insecurity, therefore, is not only a climate issue or a humanitarian concern, it is a gender equality and protection issue.

Children Paying the Highest Price

For children, the consequences of water scarcity are severe and lasting. Unsafe water and poor sanitation remain leading drivers of diarrhoeal disease, one of the main causes of illness and death among young children. During droughts, children are more likely to be withdrawn from school, either to help their families cope or because hunger and illness make learning impossible.

In Somalia, where nearly half the population is under 15, the scale of this challenge is enormous. A lack of water undermines nutrition, education, health, and child protection all at once, reversing hard won development gains and placing an entire generation at risk.

Responding with Dignity and Choice

This World Water Day, World Vision Ireland is launching a €139,000 Irish Aid funded drought response in Dangorayo district, Nugaal region, implemented in partnership with World Vision Somalia. The project will support 510 of the most vulnerable households through three months of multipurpose cash assistance, enabling families to meet their most urgent needs, including water, food, and hygiene, through local markets.

Cash assistance is a deliberate choice. In a context where markets remain functional, it restores dignity, flexibility, and agency, allowing families to prioritise what they need most while reducing harmful coping strategies such as skipping meals or selling productive assets. Priority is given to female headed households, families with young children at risk of malnutrition, displaced families, and persons with disabilities.

This is not a long term solution to Somalia’s water crisis, but it is a lifesaving intervention at a critical moment, helping families withstand the peak of the dry season with dignity intact.

A Global Crisis Demands Global Responsibility

Somalia’s drought is not a local failure. It is a stark example of a global climate crisis that is hitting hardest where resilience is lowest and resources are fewest. Countries that have contributed least to climate change are paying the highest price, through hunger, displacement and lost futures for their children.

On World Water Day, the message from Somalia is clear. Water security is climate security. It is food security. It is gender equality. And it is a child rights issue.

If we are serious about equality, resilience and global justice, we must treat access to safe water not as a secondary concern, but as a foundation for everything else. Because where water flows, children can thrive. And where it fails, the cost is measured in lives.